The First Student Collective Meeting: Navigating the Social Distanced Museum Space

Well, I can’t believe it is November already. Time really does fly when you have lots to do. I think it’s safe to say my semester at the Meadows began a bit slowly. I was planning ideas for the student collective, thinking about and talking about a program for pre-med students at SMU through the Museum, and tying a few lose ends. I was able to join several staff meetings and see what was happening around different departments, but for the most part things felt like they were still pretty abstract. A full week of interviews in October helped kick things into high gear, but our first official collective meeting really put things into perspective for me. I have officially been at the Meadows for about three whole months. I had my first student collective meeting on October 22nd at 5:00pm. I was so excited to meet the students and make a good impression that I made candy bags for them- a socially distanced snack to munch on while we talked (mostly I talked about what we’d be doing this year). 

Before the first meeting began on Thursday, October 22nd, Anne and I spent a few minutes thinking logistically about how everyone would fit safely into the seminar room. We realized as we shifted chairs and tables around, that whoever took in the room capacity did not think about the layout of the chairs and tables. Essentially, the seminar room was beautifully arranged for a lecture with about 8 people and not for a discussion to be had among colleagues and students. This made something like the student collective difficult to do inside the space. We tried our best with seat arranging, but opted for an outdoor eating/ ice breaker game instead. It was 5:00pm before I knew it and students began walking into the room. I signalled for them to follow me outside with their gallery stools and we ate sandwiches and talked about their majors and favourite museum experiences. Anne stayed for a few minutes, introduced herself and quickly left for the day. When we headed back to the seminar room, I began to notice that being six feet apart and covered with a mask made things a bit awkward and distant. I realized I had to talk loudly for students to hear what I was saying, and they did not really mingle with one another because it seemed impossible to whisper. We did a quick postcard writing activity based on the Venice painting at the museum, but I felt that this was difficult to do because we were looking at a projection and not an actual painting. Overall, I was impressed with how the students engaged with the work of art in their postcard narratives. Some wrote from the perspective of a figure in the painting, others wrote in Italian and others placed themselves directly into the scene- even with their feet dipped in the canal. 

We spend the rest of our time in the permanent collection galleries upstairs. I asked students to look through the works of art and choose one that they felt connected to. I realized after a few students spoke that like good art history students, they gravitated towards the formal qualities of the paintings. Overall, it was a fun exercise in getting to know them a little better. The gallery seemed a much better space for social distanced mingling than the seminar room, and I am excited to come up with other activities we could do during our meetings! I was nervous as expected, but overall I think the first meeting went well. I hope the students come back for our meeting this next week!